Page 13 of Code Word
“How’d the call with Vana go?”
He made a face—a storm of regret and a darkness in his eyes. “As expected.”
“Feel better now that you’ve spoken to her, though?”
He shook his head and let out a noise that told me the opposite was true.
Fuck.
I took a bite of my sandwich and spoke with my mouth full. “Want me to toss the cell booster into the firepit? No more phone calls.”
That made him almost smile, a little, at least.
I took that for a win.
A small win, but a win, nonetheless.
“So,” he hedged. “Maddox and Roscoe tomorrow, huh?”
“Yep.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “He messaged me, I think... I didn’t reply. Probably gonna get reamed for that.”
“Nah,” I said, waving that off. “He is worried about you though.”
That seemed to annoy him. “I don’t need...” He frowned and growled in frustration. When he spoke again, it had less bite. “I don’t mean to make anyone worry. That’snot what... I mean, I’m fine. Just stuck in my head a lot lately.”
“That’s okay, Luke,” I offered gently. “It’s completely normal to need a breather every so often.”
“Please don’t give me the mental health spiel.” He groaned. “And please tell me that’s not what Maddox is coming here for.”
“Dude.”
Nowhe was annoyed. “I get it. It’s important. It helped him.”
“It saved his life, Luke.”
“I know, I know.” He deflated some. “But that’s not what this is.”
My gaze cut to his. I was glad he was finally telling me something, but I didn’t buy that for a minute. Because if it wasn’t anything to do with mental health— even when he admitted to being all up in his head—then what the hell was it?
“Look,” I said. “Maddox and Roscoe are coming up here because they care about you.Icare about you.” He flinched at that, which was not a reaction I wanted to see. “And if you don’t want to talk to me about anything—and that’s totally fine—then talk to Maddox. He’ll understand better than most, I suppose.”
His gaze darted to mine, defensive and annoyed, before he looked away. After a long moment of silence, it was clear he wasn’t going to say anything, so I tapped his foot with mine.
“We’re in this Atrous shit for life, right?”
He sighed and, finally looking at me, gave the hint of a smile. “Right.”
“And look,” I added. Not really wanting to say this because he’d never wanted to hear about anything between me and his sister. “Becca and I?—”
He stood up. “I can’t. I can’t hear this, sorry.” He tookboth our plates, and with a pained look on his face, he backed away. “I’ll take these back. Thanks for the sandwich, I...” He winced and shook his head, turned around, and before I could say anything else, he was gone.
He’d never liked hearing about Bec and me, and I understood that. She was his sister, and it was weird for him. He’d sworn back in the beginning that he was fine with it, but he never was.
But everything seemed to be weird for him lately.
I could have followed him out and yelled at him to tell me what the fuck was wrong. But then he would’ve either yelled back at me, and it’d be a fight, or it’d make him pull away from me even more.
